Miniature Figures Ski and Swim Through Mixed-Media Paintings by Golsa Golchini

Images © Golsa Golchini, shared with permission

Iranian mixed-media artist Golsa Golchini combines impasto and digital painting techniques to create miniature worlds of water and ice. Textured mounds of acrylic paint form three-dimensional waves and slopes. Digital paintings of tiny figures are added to the abstract landscapes via ink transfers, with additional details applied by hand. The paintings are simple by design because that is what the artist says the world needs right now.

Shadows added beneath the flat transfers, as well as the natural shadows on the raised paint, give the illusion that the swimmers and skiers physically are entering Golchini’s isolated environments. The limited color palette and similar character poses give the body of work a fun, unifying theme. “My artworks are my way of communicating with the observer about the things of everyday life that we all have in common,” Golchini said in a statement. “Although the artworks are simple, they are usually expressing challenging situations.”

Some of Golchini’s paintings are available online via Return on Art, or you can follow and contact her directly on Instagram.

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Ian Schrager and John Pawson redefine California luxury at West Hollywood Edition Hotel

Hotelier Ian Schrager has joined forces with British architect and designer John Pawson to create the West Hollywood Edition in Los Angeles.

The new hotel and luxury residences mark the boutique brand's California debut.

The British architect completed the hotel's 140 guestrooms and 50 suites with a calming neutral palette that touts whitewashed Siberian Larch wood and floor-to-ceiling sliding screens.

The pared-back details are reminiscent of the rooms in Schrager's New York hotel Public, designed by Pawson and Herzog & de Meuron.

The building is also home to 20 residences ranging from 150 to 600 square metres that echo the same neutral colour scheme, complete with Molteni kitchens, sliding glass walls and teak louvered shades.

While Pawson's design carries his signature minimalism, Schrager's traditionally bold colour choices manifest as floor-to-ceiling emerald curtains, royal blue velvet seating, and a pool table with canary-coloured felt.

The entrance was designed "to convey a sense of timelessness rather than a decade-defining aesthetic, creating a fine balance between old and new," as described in a statement from the hotel.

A dramatic mobile by LA artist Sterling Ruby called "The Scale" hangs from the lofty ceiling. The piece comments on the former grittiness of the Sunset Strip, a focal point of LA's youth and counterculture in the 1960s and 70s.

More specifically, a petrol can that is part of the installation nods to the petrol station that occupied the plot prior to the hotel's construction.

The Ardor restaurant sits off the lobby area. Wood accents and potted greenery are omnipresent in the main room, as well as in the lush outdoor terrace available for al fresco dining.

Chef John Fraser helms the signature eatery, which serves an all-organic, vegetable-forward menu to reflect Fraser's own California roots with laid back sophistication – a counter to 701West, his chic restaurant at Schrager's Times Square Edition in New York.

West Hollywood Edition's indoor-outdoor rooftop bar is encased in sliding glass walls, with panoramic views extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Hollywood Hills and downtown skyline. An open-air rooftop pool can be accessed up a flight of stairs.

The property also boasts a basement nightclub called Sunset, several multimedia studios equipped to host events and photoshoots, a 24-hour gym and a spa offering "technology-forward treatments that use light and sound".

Surrounding the property's entrance is a lush perimeter of plants indigenous to Southern California — 56 species in total — including Aleppo Pine, Arbutus and Camphor trees. The extensive landscaping required 850 tonnes of soil.

The hotel is the latest outpost of the Edition chain that Schrager launched in partnership with Marriott International. The hotelier opened Times Square outpost earlier this year, following others located in London, Miami and Hawaii.

Schrager often enlists well-known architects and designers for his projects, such as Pawson and Herzog & de Meuron, which designed his Public hotel in New York, and Yabu Pushelburg, which completed the Times Square Edition.

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Black pavilion filled with glass yams examines colonisation in Australia

Hundreds of black glass yams line the interior of this cylindrical pavilion in Victoria, Australia, designed by architecture studio Edition Office - Dezeen's Emerging architect of the year - and artist Yhonnie Scarce.

Titled In Absence, the pavilion explores the physical legacy of Aboriginal people's dispossession as a result of colonial land theft in the 18th century.

It's the winner of the National Gallery of Victoria's (NGV) fifth architecture competition, which invites practices to propose a temporary structure to occupy the Grollo Equiset Garden.

Sitting on a paved area of the garden, the cylindrical form of the pavilion are made of dark-stained Tasmanian hardwood and bisected with a full-height cut.

A path runs through the cut, aligned with with both the entrance to the museum and the bridge leading into the garden.

Inside, two opposing circular chambers are lined with hand-blown glass yams – designed by Scarce – that appear to be dripping down between the black planks of the interior.

The cut-through and the voids within each half of the pavilion are intended as a reference to the colonial strategy of "terra nullius" or "nobody's land".

Colonisers declared Aboriginal settlements in Australia empty to allow for their seizure, dispossessing indigenous communities of their land and livelihoods.

"In Absence speaks directly to the richness of architecture, agriculture and industry of the traditional custodians of this land, the presence of which sadly lies hidden within the deep myopic shadows of this nation's history," said the practice.

The glass yams' amorphous shapes and glossy black texture reference Australia's natural resources and the land stolen from Aboriginal people.

As well as yams, they invoke oil from fish, medicinal tree sap and eels – which are traditionally smoked inside charred, hollow trees reminiscent of the pavilion's voids.

As the sun moves over the garden, the light passing through the circular opening at the top of the void moves across these glossy black forms.

Scarce described the effect as "the glittering light of the memories and echoes of thousands of years of occupation."

A low black wooden bench offers a place for reflection.

The previous pavilion commission saw practices Muir and Openwork create a mist-filled "chasm" in the garden of the museum, which was also recently host to an exhibition of the work of artist MC Escher designed by Nendo.

Edition Office, an Australian architecture studio based in Melbourne, was named Emerging architects of the year at the 2019 Dezeen Awards.

 

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Studio Holmberg designs pine-clad holiday home to blends into Swedish seaside setting

This pine-clad summer house on a rocky outcrop on a small island in Sweden's archipelago of Gothenburg features minimal plywood interiors designed to highlight the island's dramatic landscape.

Created as a holiday home for a retired couple, Villa Vassdal was designed by Gothenburg-based Studio Holmberg to blend with its coastal surrounds.

The house is built on an island with historical connections to Gothenburg's fishing and shipping industries. Today the island consists of family houses that are occupied year-round as well as holiday homes that are mostly used in the summer.

Overlooking the sea and surrounded by exposed cliffs and wild vegetation, the house's low profile is made up of a cluster of pitched roof volumes. Arranged in a staggered layout, the volumes are designed to blend in with the rocky landscape.

The house is oriented so that the clean-lined interior spaces take in views of the sea but are also shielded from the neighbours and the glare of the sun.

Studio Holmberg chose to clad the house's roofs and facades in untreated heart-pine to match the cliffs. Sourced from the north of Sweden, the pine will weather over time gradually becoming more grey and enabling it to blend with its environment even better.

Each of the four volumes that make up the house are allocated a specific function. The first is for sleeping and bathing as well as storage, the second is for cooking and dining, and the third is for the living room.

The fourth smaller volume at the back functions as a tool shed but is also used as a summer guest room for the clients' grandchildren.

The volumes' staggered layout also creates a number of sheltered outdoor spaces for dining and relaxing.

The house's external heart-pine cladding is echoed in the calming interior spaces where walls and ceilings are lined in birch plywood.

"The minimal expression aims to highlight the volumes, with the same material used for the walls and roofs," Studio founder Mathias Holmberg told Dezeen.

"Birch plywood adds a texture with a natural pattern, although a very subtle one, creating a monolithic expression and mirroring the wooden exterior facade. It also provides a warmth to the interior that both contrasts and connects with the raw cliffs outside."

The house is entered from the back allowing guests to move from a sequence of smaller spaces into the large open-plan living area with views out to sea.

Spread across two of the pitched roof volumes, this living area combines a space for dining, a kitchen and a living room with a wood burning stove. A grid of floor-to-ceiling shelving spans the rear wall opposite two large sets of sliding double doors that open out onto a large deck with views across the water.

Bedrooms and bathrooms are located in a third volume to the south of the open-plan living area. A master bedroom with views of the sea opens out onto the front deck, while a hallway with wardrobes and a small office area leads to a second bedroom, a utility area and a bathroom, which are positioned at the back of the property.

Studio founder Mathias Holmberg told Dezeen that he wanted each of the interior spaces to maintain a close but different relationship to the exterior.

"Moving through the house provides a choreographed experience with shifting sight lines, culminating with a view out towards the sea," he explained.

"It's also designed from the perspective of everyday living. There is a separation of functions with possibilities for both interaction and seclusion or also for two different activities taking place at the same time, according to the clients wishes and needs. There is a visual connection between almost all rooms, but at the same time a clear division of space."

Holmberg said that the concept of blurring of the indoor and outdoor space is also extended to other functions and spaces within the house. For example, the corridor extends to the facade where there is a home office, while the kitchen and dining room extends into the living room.

In 2010, Swedish studio Tham & Videgård Arkitekter completed a concrete summerhouse with a zigzagging profile on an island in the Stockholm archipelago. Oriented towards the bay, the wide and shallow house was designed to stretch across its site like a line of boathouses, creating five pitched rooftops with varying proportions.

Photography is by Markus Bülow.

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This week, we looked back on 2019 and forward to 2020

This week on Dezeen, we looked back at the biggest architecture and design stories of 2019, and looked forward to the upcoming projects of the new year.

To bring 2019 to a close, Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft rounded up the most popular stories of the past 12 months, which included architects and designers' alternative proposals for rebuilding the Notre-Dame Cathedral after the fire in April.

The list also included Elon Musk's Neuralink project, which saw the entrepreneur reveal plans to build implants that connect the brain with computer interfaces, and a drone video revealing a development of hundreds of abandoned chateaux in Turkey.

Remembering the great architects and designers we lost in 2019

Dezeen also paid tribute to the architects and designers we lost in 2019, including fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, German lighting designer Ingo Maurer, and Pritzker Prize-winning architect IM Pei.

American artist Syd Mead, who created visual concept or numerous sci-fi films including Blade Runner and Tron, also passed away this week.

12 buildings to look forward to in 2020

Looking ahead to the new year, Dezeen's Lizzie Crook selected 12 of the most exciting new buildings opening in 2020, including the Datong Art Museum in China by Foster + Partners and the Zaha Hadid-designed Bee'ah Headquarters in the UAE.

In an opinion piece Aaron Betsky pondered what the next decade will hold for architecture. The 2020s "will see the return of the real", he argued.

Zaha Hadid Architects wins approval for world's first all-timber stadium

Also announced this week was the news that Zaha Hadid Architects won planning permission for the world's first all-timber football stadium, after the original proposal was blocked by Stroud's local council in June 2019.

The 5,000-seat stadium will be built in Gloucestershire, England, for Forest Green Rovers football club.

Superflux shows how future homes might face realities of climate change in 2219

Elsewhere in design, Superflux studio created a vision of what a typical Singapore home would look like in 2219 due to the effects of climate change.

The fictional home features homemade hunting tools, snorkelling equipment and a mini hydroponic farm to allow inhabitants to deal with extreme weather conditions and food shortages.

Lucy McRae offers an escape from the digital with Future Survival Kit

Lucy McRae's survival kit for a post-apocalyptic future was also popular with readers this week.

McRae imagines her Future Survival Kit would help future people adjust to life after the "age of the algorithm", when people have rejected digital devices and social media platforms.

Virgil Abloh creates streetwear collection for the Musée du Louvre

Virgil Abloh created a capsule collection in collaboration with Paris's Musée du Louvre, which combines signature markings from the fashion designer's Off-White brand with some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings.

Designed to celebrate the 500th anniversary of da Vinci's death, the collection includes tee-shirts and hoodies decorated with graphic branding, four-way arrows and monochrome representations of the artist's anatomical sketches.

Apple, Google and Amazon unite to make all smart home products talk to each other

Apple, Google, Amazon and the Zigbee Alliance also joined forces this week to develop a standardised smart-home system that would allow new devices to be compatible with any of their hubs and voice assistants.

The aim of this Project Connected Home Over IP initiative is to form a unified connectivity protocol that is open-source and royalty-free, to make it easier for consumers to build their smart-home environment and for manufacturers to develop new products.

Green ceramic tiles cover extension of a house in rural China

Other stories popular with Dezeen readers included an underground concrete house in Monsaraz, Portugal, a house extension in Yangqing, China, clad in pale green ceramic tiles, and a restaurant in Frankfurt that is a modern take on the classic French brasserie.

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